All posts tagged H7N9

Even as authorities cautiously watch one strain of avian flu making its way through China, scientists are warning that another can now infect humans and requires close scrutiny.

The Lancet medical journal said in a study published Wednesday that a strain of the H10N8 avian flu had mutated and can now be carried by humans. The study followed findings by Chinese researchers that the H10N8 flu had been found in two people in recent months.

The first, a 73-year-old woman in the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi province, died Dec. 6. Read More »

Chinese health officials are moving to calm fears over the potential spread of the H7N9 bird flu virus after three members of a Chinese family contracted it, sparking concerns of an outbreak spread between humans.

The World Health Organization is working with Chinese authorities to investigate the family, but WHO officials still believe H7N9 is an infection transmitted from birds to humans, a spokeswoman said.

Thus far there has been “no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission,” the spokeswoman said, adding that it is natural for flu-like infections to rise in the winter. Read More »

Hong Kong stepped up its fight against bird flu this week, as government workers began to cull some 20,000 chickens on Tuesday in an attempt to halt the spread of a disease that has already killed two here.

The government also said it would suspend live poultry imports from China for at least three weeks. All sales of live poultry from local farms will similarly be halted, with health minister Ko Wing-man suggesting that residents eat frozen chicken during the coming Lunar New Year — a time of family meals and celebration during which live poultry sales usually rise. Read More »

The mother of a British businessman whose murder led to the downfall of former Chinese Communist Party highflier Bo Xilai broke her public silence on the matter, urging Chinese authorities to show “decisiveness and compassion”; China plans to move tens of millions to cities in a drive to boost domestic incomes and consumption, but some newly built cities are luring few employers or residents. Read More »

A new bird flu virus that has infected 132 people in recent months and killed 43 is capable of spreading from mammal to mammal through the air, a study by a team of Chinese virologists has found, rekindling fears that the virus could eventually pass from person to person. Read More »

Chinese researchers have taken an important step in unraveling the mystery surrounding the new H7N9 bird flu, drawing a firm link in transmission of the virus between live poultry and some of the earlier human cases.

But even as they answer some questions, the researchers’ findings have raised new ones.

In a fast-track study published in leading medical journal the Lancet on Thursday, a team of scientists from mainland China and Hong Kong showed that strains of the virus that infected some of the earliest patients were genetically very similar to strains found in infected chickens and pigeons at wet markets. Read More »

World Health Organization China chief Michael O’Leary and provocative Chinese air force colonel Dai Xu have very different ideas about the origins of the latest strain of bird flu. But they share a sense of what the disease should mean for local eating habits. Read More »

Uncertainty about the new bird-flu virus is raising concern among investors. Minggao Shen, Citigroup’s head of China research, talks about how H7N9 will affect the retail, airline and insurance sectors in China. Read More »

While Chinese and World Health Organization experts continue to search for the source of a new strain of bird flu that has infected at least 23 and led to seven deaths in eastern China, one senior Chinese military official says he knows what’s going on.

According to Dai Xu, a Chinese Air Force colonel and military strategist, the H7N9 virus is part of a U.S. conspiracy to sow panic in the world’s most populous nation that Chinese authorities should simply ignore. Read More »

Expert Insight

China’s territorial ambitions in the East and South China seas are by now well-documented. Much less understood is one of the key factors in the country’s ability to realize those ambitions: an increasingly well-funded and capable maritime militia.

The U.S. has been urging allies to steer clear of Asia's new China-led infrastructure investment bank. Robert Zoellick, former president of the World Bank, calls that approach mistaken on multiple levels.

Can legal reform and Communist Party control coexist in a way that will benefit Chinese governance and society?This is the question that confronts the country in the wake of its annual legislative gathering.

China's just-concluded legislative sessions seem to be another example of the deinstitutionalization of politics under Xi Jinping. Months from now, these meetings won’t be seen as harbingers of reform, so much as another lost opportunity, writes CRT analyst Russell Moses.

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